Dean Thomas F. Valent of The Charles Howard Santa School in Michigan, USA, had been specially invited to give a condensed version of his 3 day Santa School. The Charles Howard Santa School has a 50 year tradition of teaching Santa's how to be even better at their job and Tom is the third dean.
Tom and his wife Holly Valent organize a 60 person Santa School once a year and put in all this effort just to help support other Santas. The School is a non-profit organisation, which their run in their spare time.
The Santa Claus of Greenland Foundation will also offer the regular 3 day Santa School from 1996 in collaboration with Tom and Holly Valent.
Inbetween the more serious aspects of being a good Santa Santa Carman Lamb from Canada got everyone in the Christmas spirit by being Rudolph for a joint chorus of Rudolph the red nosed reindeer.
The points covered today in Santa School were:
All the Santa students contributed to the debate with their experiences and many gave examples on how local traditions in their home contries have added other dimensions to the points discussed.
- The more of the North Pole you have in your mind, the better a Santa you are, said Santa dean Tom Valant and added: "That's why I'm very happy to be here in Greenland for the first Santa Summit. This is the country of the North Pole. Just being in this country add new dimensions to our Santa qualifications".
The Santa lecturer stessed the importance of always keeping up appearancies: - "Never go out of your character, said Santa Valant and gave this example: - When nature calls while your in your dress, don't jump out of your role or be rude. Try insted to say "I better go and see how the reindeer are", when you have to leave for a while.